Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in the Areas of Observational, Theoretical, Computational Astrophysics and Instrumentation

The Institute of Astrophysics of Pontificia Universidad Catolica (IA-PUC) and the Center of Astro-Engineering of the Universidad Catolica (AIUC) invite applications for sponsoring postdoctoral research fellowships in the areas of observational, theoretical, computational astrophysics and/or instrumentation to work either on existing projects or in close collaboration with one or more faculty members at IA-PUC and/or AIUC. Selected candidates will be sponsored by IA-PUC/AIUC professors either to apply for 3-year FONDECYT postdoctoral grants from the Chilean funding agency, CONICYT, or for other national or international grants. The FONDECYT fellowship is expected to begin on March 15, 2020, with eligibility limited to recent PhDs, received not earlier than Jan 1, 2016 (or Jan 1, 2015 for women who gave birth in this period) and granted before the application deadline.

The IA-PUC/AIUC provides a vibrant, dynamic, and productive international environment with 20 professors, 30+ postdoctoral researchers (~50% of them FONDECYT fellows), and 40+ graduate students. Members of IA-PUC/AIUC are leading or are active participants in several ongoing international collaborations: VST-ATLAS u-band extension, Frontier Fields Survey, PESSTO, NuSTAR Legacy Surveys, SDSS-IV (w/ eBOSS, MANGA and APOGEE data access), SDSS-V, LSST, Vista Variables Via Lactea (VVV), the Next Generation Fornax/Virgo Surveys (NGFS/NGVS), Survey of Centaurus A’s Baryonic Structures (SCABS), The HST Coma Cluster Core Project (C3PO), Max Planck Partner Group on the Galactic Centre, Millennium Nucleus on Planet Formation, the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT), the Simons Observatory, the Cosmology Large Angular Scale Surveyor (CLASS), VLT Multi Object Optical and Near-infrared Spectrograph (VLT-MOONS), Fibre Dual Echelle Optical Spectrograph (FIDEOS), TAO-AIUC high Resolution Y band Spectrograph (TARdYS), the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), and HATSouth, among others.

While resident at IA-PUC/AIUC, the candidate will qualify as a member of the Chilean community with 10% privileged access on all telescopes in Chile, including ESO/Paranal's 4x8m VLT and 4m VISTA, La Silla's 3.5m NTT and 3.6m and 2.2m telescopes, Gemini-South 8m, Carnegie's 2.5m and Magellan 2x6.5m, CTIO's 4m (Blanco), SOAR 4m, as well as ASTE, APEX, and ALMA. There is also strong interest in our Institute to work towards the next-generation telescopes to be placed in Chile, such as ELT, LSST, GMT, and CTA. Additionally, the IA-PUC/AIUC hosts two supercomputers and a GPU cluster, which are available for numerical simulations, large databases, and data analyses.

Applicants should submit by email and in pdf format to Prof. Ezequiel Treister the following documents: a brief cover letter; CV including exact or expected PhD date; publication list; research summary (max. three pages) describing past projects and possible plans while resident at IA-PUC/AIUC, and the names of three people willing to write letters of recommendation upon request. Selected candidates will be contacted to apply for the fellowship through the Chilean governmental system. Applications will be considered until two weeks before the FONDECYT fellowship application deadline.

We strongly encourage applicants to make early contact with IA-PUC/AUIC professors working on their subjects of interest to seed collaborations on joint projects leading to the submission of successful applications. We strongly suggest that applicants submit all materials well in advance of the application deadline. Useful information regarding salary, benefits, working, and living conditions for new postdocs can be found here. 

IA-PUC and AIUC are committed to equal opportunity and diversity in its workforce. Women and minorities are strongly encouraged to apply.